SPEEA and Boeing Resume Contract Negotiations Wednesday for 22,950 Engineers
and Technical Workers
Business Wire
SEATTLE -- January 8, 2013
The union for engineers and technical workers resumes contract negotiations
with The Boeing Company on Wednesday (Jan. 9) but the two sides remain far
apart on major contract issues.
Members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace
(SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, are marking the resumption of talks with a “Day of
Action” that includes lunchtime solidarity events at Boeing facilities from
Everett to Portland and Utah.
“Our goal is to get a contract that respects the contributions engineers and
technical workers had in creating the record profits and 4,200 airplane
backlog Boeing has today,” said Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director. “After
Boeing tried and failed to build the 787 on the cheap, SPEEA members stepped
up and saved the program. Everything has now turned around and the company has
developed amnesia about how that happened.”
Negotiations resume at 1 p.m. at a SeaTac hotel with the assistance of the
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). FMCS Director George H.
Cohen called a halt to talks Dec. 5 when negotiations appeared heading for a
cliff. Since then, SPEEA members have started preparing for a strike by
training picket site captains and informing members on how to hold a
successful strike.
Wednesday’s “Day of Action” events are expected to draw from dozens at small
sites to hundreds and thousands of SPEEA members walking inside and outside
Boeing facilities in Renton and Everett. According to SPEEA, Boeing has drawn
three Unfair Labor Practice Charges (ULPs) for videotaping and photographing
union members at the events, confiscating cameras and the photographs they
held. All of the marches have been peaceful. The ULPs are awaiting action
before the National Labor Relations Board.
SPEEA and Boeing started meeting in April to negotiate new contracts for
15,550 engineers and 7,400 technical workers. In October, engineers rejected
Boeing’s initial offer by 95.5 percent. Technical workers rejected the
company’s offer by 97 percent. Existing contracts expired Nov. 25.
A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical
Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents 26,300 aerospace professionals at Boeing,
Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, and Triumph Composite Systems, Inc. in
Spokane, Wash.
Contact:
SPEEA
Bill Dugovich, 206-674-7368 or 206-683-9857
Communications Director
or
Ray Goforth, 206-433-0991
Executive Director